Changing protected drives

[jflatto]

I have Rollback RX installed on my home computer. Is there any way to change the protected drives other than uninstalling and re-installing?

My primary drive is partitioned into three drives C, D and E and I really only want to protect my C drive and not the other two drives.

Thanks.

[Froggie]

Hi Jflatto! To the best of my knowledge that's the only way to reassign partitions in Rollback. During the unInstallation process, be sure to select the current snapshot as the one you want to be at once Rollback is unInstalled... all others will dissappear during the process.

The other thing you must be aware of (I found out the hard way)... if there's any "unallocated" disk space (not assigned to a partition) adjacent to the partition you want to protect, Rollback will gobble that up as part of the protected area. This of course will cause grief if you wish to assign, at a later time, that unallocated area to an adjacent partition which is not under Rollback's protection. Rollback is quite sneaky and the developers have yet to document, in a succinct manner, all these little quirks in its protection of partitions. That said, it is a GREAT product with active development so I expect to see some of these anomalies explained as they go along.

Be carefull (re-partitioning, re-assigning protected partitions, Windows-based defragging, Windows-based backups, etc.)

[tubby]

At the tail-end of Rollbacks defrag process, (while Rollback attempts to defrag the "Current" snapshot) an "error message" "Failed to open file \\.\E:,2" is displayed!

I "close" the "error window" and Rollback performs normally, (but I am uncertain if this "last" snapshot actually got defragged because the error message occurs at 4% .....when I OK and/or close the error window, the "blue bar" immediatly goes to the 100%)

I am not a PC pro but because the error message refers to "E", I un-installed Rollback Rx, then re-installed, this time choosing the Custom screen to protect only "C"

This is a brand new install of Rollback Rx on a brand new Dell PC. Dell makes the customer (me) create "factory out of the box media" on an 8G flashdrive. I did make the media almost immediatly after powering up the new PC for the first time.
I think Dell does put their data back-up software/programs on a partition termed "E" If I physically attach the flashdrive (now containing the recovery media) into any of the USB ports, then do a Rollback defrag, there is no hint of the error message! Rollback is now perfect!

The error message, while not killing Rollback, bugs me! I have had Rollback on our family nearly 3 years and I think the program is magic!

I take a snap shot (automatically) every hour! I delete most of the snapshots every 3 days then do a Rollback (not Windows) defrag for good measure. (I have teenagers who use the PC and they can really mess things up!) so deleting/defragging often is a small price to pay for what Rollback gives me!

I have convinced several friends and family memebers to purchase Rollback Rx and theysort of look to me for advice, but I am stumped on this nagging error message!

Any thoughts?

[Froggie]

Hi Tubby! Your explanation is a bit fuzzy to me. It sounds like you only had the error when Rollback was set to manage your entire "Disk 0" storage element (your main hard disk). And since your CUSTOM re-installation of protecting your "C" partition only, it no longer happens... yes?

The insertion of your "recovery media" FLASH drive should have no effect on Rollback... it's only dealing with your hard disk. What I can't answer is how Rollback treats non-Windows partitions when they are part of an entire hard drive Rollback is protecting... that sounds dangerous to me. Recovery Partitions from different vendors are in all kinds of strange formats... and I sure don't know what Rollback completely understands. Protecting your ROOT Windows partition ONLY is the safest way to use Rollback, unless you're sure the entire hard disk only has Windows sanctioned partitions on it.

I don't ever use the OEM factory supplied recovery partitions 'cause I never want to return to what came home from the store (most of the time I want to throw it away... hate that BloatWare). The first thing I do is image just the Windows ROOT partition (usually after a CLEAN INSTALL of Windows and my basic favorite apps) and that becomes my RECOVERY partition when I need it. This image is updated along the way so it's always current. Then when disaster strikes, I can "recover" the last image prior to the disaster... which is a hell of lot more useful than an out of the box configuration. I usually blow away the factory recovery partition and add the space to the Windows partition... much more useful... to me, anyway... YMMV.

My Windows-based backup tool of choice at the moment is "Image For Windows" because it's the only one I've found that can completely image a Rollback protected system without flaw (if you use their sector-by-sector mode)... meaning a complete transparent restoration of a saved system, incl. Rollback and all its snapshots.

My Off-line recovery tool of choice is currently Acronis True Image HOME... it also can save a Rollback protected partition using its sector-by-sector mode (the Windows-based version DOES NOT do this). Why don't I use the "Image For DOS" off-line recovery tool to keep my images compatible... it has a very sucky UI, I hate it. If I get fluent in the use of its UI, it may become my Acronis replacement... just to keep all disk imaging in the same format.

Probably more than you wanted to read... sorry. I'm not sure I've answered anything in your inquiry

[tubby]

To simplify, an "E" related error message occurs at the end of a Rollback defrag DESPITE the fact that I chose to protect only the "C"

The error message remains at the end of every Rollback defrag......whatever I do!

Your explination of a NON-windows partition was informative. I never really thought about it in that regard. I know I should have a backup/recovery plan to address a hardware failure but I do not...............just software ie: Rollback Rx

-I guess this is why I wanted Dells "factory out-of-box" image on some sort of media.

Image for Windows sounds interesting. I am sort of surprised Horizon does not make a "cloner" that would allow their fancy Time Machine (Rollback Rx) to survive the process. Rollback Rx s so clever. To me, it is a stunning creation. No longer do I have to stay up 'til midnight un-tangling God knows what my kids have done to the PC!

See you in the funny papers Froggie!

[Froggie]

Originally Posted by tubby

To simplify, an "E" related error message occurs at the end of a Rollback defrag DESPITE the fact that I chose to protect only the "C"

The error message remains at the end of every Rollback defrag......whatever I do!

After having looked more closely at your original Rollback error msg, it clearly is trying to open up the E: partition (as a whole) but isn't being allowed to (good thing!). That because the E: partition is not one that Rollback understands and probably is protected in some way (many OEMs do that).

I think you're safe at the moment as long as Rollback doesn't get in there... but since you have the recovery media elsewhere, I would consider unInstalling Rollback, blowing away Dell's recovery partition, and extending your C: partition into that space. The re-install Rollback to protect your partition. I believe if you do that the error msg will be "Gone With The Wind."

Of course if you'r not comfortable with all that, leave it as is and just salute the err msgs... I don't think it's hurting you at all. A question concerning this might be a good inquiry of the support group... they sure know a hell of a lot more about this product than I do

It's off to the papers for me!

[tubby]

Froggie,

I have the gut feeling you are close if not "right on" about my error message.

It does seem to me that if I go out of my way to protect only the C partition only, Rollback sould ignore all other partitions.

The new PC is for my 18 year old daughter (she earned the money herself life guarding all summer). She is a bit of a perfectionist and error messages bug her about as much as they bug me. I want her to get to like Rollback Rx but want her to understand she should defrag quite often. I did engage a support ticket regarding the error message. So far, they have not come up with anything other than those "initial" basic questions they need to ask the "unwashed" masses, but I started the support ticket earlier this week.

Because of slow response by Horizon with our family PC in the past, I (somewhat reluctantly) shelled out the extra $10.35/year GOLD SUPPORT subscription. Have you any opinion on Horizons support? I wonder what % of folks would ever dane to pay extra for "better support" I felt a little foolish but I thought "what the heck?" because in truth, I would pay double the $69.00 for Rollback Rx. It is just so neat!

As you say, I may decide simply to live with the error message until I buy an external drive and do the cloning thing (I know I should). I guess I thought if I just occasionally copy/paste photos/Word documents onto a flash (or external drive) I could live with starting from scratch should my PC die. I have never had a hard drive die before.

-If this was a business PC, my opinion would be different.

Thank you very much for your insite/opinions!

tubby

PS I chose to "pick" on you because I liked your approach on technical matters while I was reading this forum

Happy Trails!

[Froggie]

Originally Posted by tubby

Froggie,

The new PC is for my 18 year old daughter (she earned the money herself life guarding all summer). She is a bit of a perfectionist and error messages bug her about as much as they bug me. I want her to get to like Rollback Rx but want her to understand she should defrag quite often.

I guess I thought if I just occasionally copy/paste photos/Word documents onto a flash (or external drive) I could live with starting from scratch should my PC die. I have never had a hard drive die before.

PS I chose to "pick" on you because I liked your approach on technical matters while I was reading this forum

Another thing you should be aware of (if you aren't already), the "defragging" Rollback does is NOT on your drive at large... it only concerns its own snapshots and the space they occupy. Overall defragging is not done by Rollback... or so says my hard disk structures, I've looked at them carefully.

Consider yourself lucky you haven't experienced a hard drive failure... it can be brutal for some users if not prepared. They can and DO fail, and more often than you know Lately (over the past year or so), SEAGATE (a popular hard drive manufacturer) has been selling millions of drives that just die after a short period of time. Most users don't know the details and think their hardware is shot... along with their data. Turns out it was a SEAGATE firmware bug in that drive, fully repairable by SEAGATE without loss of data... the poor owners never knew that. Yup... pain.

Pickin on me is just fine I left my ego on the doorstep many, many years ago. Good luck with Rollback... I, too, believe it's a wonderful tool and will work as hard as I can with the developers/forum to make sure it moves ahead properly.

[tubby]

That's swell!